haulout and memorial day weekend.

we hauled out at norview marina on monday, may 18, 2015, to check the bottom and change the zincs.  tadhana looked really good - no barnacles on the hull but the last layer of bottom paint was looking "thin," which is a good sign - it was doing its job.  interestingly enough, the aluminum zincs were covered with barnacles!  we had switched to aluminum because we thought we were going to be in fresh water up the st. john's river for the winter - so much for THAT plan - ha!  in any case, the boat was powerwashed and blocked and we resigned ourselves to at least one night on the hard.  things were a lot easier with aurora pad-trained and not having to go out so often, not to mention that she did not have consuelo's attitude of "don't carry me," plus she is so little that i can carry her with one hand while i go up and down the ladder.  tom did all the work while i only ran errands - west marine, hardware store, food.  most of the time i was at work - it was still monday.  i don't think i'd ever seen tom quite so dirty!  however, he was really hustling to get all the bottom work done.  by late monday afternoon, we knew that we would only have to be out one night so that was encouraging.  it is just so not fun to be living aboard while on the hard. 

in the meantime, aurora had a puppy play date with CJ that afternoon where she got the crap beaten out of her once again.  one day, aurora will be bigger than CJ though.  my new dell replacement laptop also arrived in the mail - happy day!   and since i had so much practice installing software on my last laptop, this time it all went very quickly and is now just waiting for work software at IT's convenience.

the next day, tuesday, disaster struck.  tom tripped over a wooden block, smashed his left elbow on one of the stands and then sustained a puncture wound on his left hand when he fell to the ground.  i iced his elbow down with a bag of frozen lima beans from the freezer, cleaned up and bandaged his wound and gave him some ibuprofen.  he rested for a little while but he was anxious to get things finished up so that we could launch at 3:00 p.m. that same day. he decided to forego waxing the hull on the port side (starboard side already done) and proceeded to finish up, put the propeller back on the bow thruster and a few more little things before the travelift arrived.  i was still working with a minute and a half to go on a report while the slings were being put on.  launching went without a hitch and we headed back to our slip, anxious for the big cleanup - the boat was filthy like it always gets in the boatyard with all that gravel dust, coupled with spring pollen. when tom tried to run the bow thruster to bring me closer to the finger pier, we heard a strange sound and the bow did not move.  uh-oh....  now, tom prides himself in the ability to maneuver the boat without using the bow thruster and that is all very well and good, but, nevertheless, it is nice to have it when you need it.  no problem - i did a "grand jeté" from the side deck to the finger pier and got us all tied up nicely and we were fine, but there was still the matter of the bow thruster.  we dropped the dinghy to investigate the problem but tom couldn't reach it from the dinghy.  it didn't help that he was still so sore - and it was his good arm that was injured, too, so he was a bit disabled on both sides.  oh well...   we left that problem and did the cleanup instead and then another puppy play date with CJ to top off the day. 

the next day was nice and sunny so tom went deep sea diving.  miraculously, the bow thruster propeller was still there!  the pin, of course, was gone.  tom was probably so discombobulated after that painful fall the day before that he failed to install the propeller properly.  but, we still had the propeller so that was a lucky thing, and we went to the hardware store later that day and procured a stainless steel rod which tom cut and fashioned into a pin.  however, we were still going to have to be hauled out again to install it. 

thursday was a cold, rainy and miserable day in deltaville.  aurora refused to go out with tom for her usual lunchtime walk but by afternoon, she was bouncing off the walls so i dragged her out in the cold rain and howling wind.  what an unhappy puppy!  her ears were laid back and she picked up her paws off that wet grass like ewwww...  it was so funny!  her royal highness, princess aurora of tadhana, i suspect, will NOT be a water dog like consuelo was and that is okay.  if i had wanted a lab, i would have gotten one.  we still don't have her walking on the docks without a leash.  i expect that she will fall in eventually but i don't want her to be afraid of the water so we aren't forcing it down her throat - she likes the beach well enough and she's not afraid of the dinghy - that is good enough for now.  on another note, she has grown and is now able to negotiate the pilothouse steps, which means i can't keep her trapped in the salon anymore. 

friday was a busy day at the marina with everyone and their mother showing up for the memorial day weekend - the official start of summer.  we left close to noon, back to norview for a short haul where tom reinstalled the bow thruster propeller, and then back again to regatta point.  bow thruster worked like a charm - no "grand jeté" this time - i only have so many of those left in me!  although it wasn't raining anymore, it was still rather cool and very windy and not many boats left the marina that day.  our friends, dave and sandy netting, had left their car with us the sunday before while they went out sailing with friends and they all showed up at the marina that day and we joined them for dinner. 

saturday was the deltaville seafood festival which we had never attended prior because we were always gone cruising on the weekends so this time we went.  we took aurora with us and she got handled by SO MANY people, coughed on by a couple (ugh) and dropped by one (sigh) - oh well, socialization, right?  those festivals are deadly where food is concerned - we had fried shrimp and oysters for lunch, then left to run our errands, after which we returned to the festival to get pork rinds and funnel cakes to take home - SO healthy (NOT).  and then, that afternoon, we decided to leave for the corrotoman river.  every year, tom helps our friend, chip wood, bring his sailboat, "sweet pea," which is stored at zimmerman's for the winter, back to its slip on senior creek off the corrotoman and this year was no exception.  the choices were to stay at the marina and drive the car to pick tom up later at the wood's home or go by boat and anchor on the river - was there really a choice?  after all that activity on saturday morning, we were ready for a quiet, peaceful night at anchor!  we hadn't been to the corrotoman river since december of 2013 anyway - it was time to go back.  it was a very relaxing cruise up the rappahannock river and into the corrotoman to our anchorage and it was a very quiet, peaceful evening at anchor.  the only thing was an invasion by midges that night but they were all in the cockpit and none of them got inside the boat.  they don't bite but it's still annoying to have so many bugs hanging about.  i dropped tom off at the senior creek community marina this morning where he was picked up by chip and barbara wood, took aurora for a nice long walk to wear her out and then did the one-hand-on-the-tiller-and-the-other-hand-holding-wriggling-puppy dinghy ride back to the boat where i proceeded to systematically eliminate our unwelcome midge guests from the cockpit.  tom and chip should be going by in a few hours and aurora and i will join them later for dinner.  it is a gorgeous day out on the water today, celebrating the start of summer.  everywhere else is probably a zoo this weekend but where tadhana is today is good!

she has grown.  check out those long legs!